Failing Labour Economics

On Friday there was a very interesting and rather revealing interview with the Chancellor Alistair Darling on the BBC.

The discussion related to the Conservatives’ economic competitiveness policy review headed by John Redwood, and the fact that, unsurprisingly, the Chancellor didn’t agree with the proposals.

In the interview, Alistair Darling suggested to listeners that if George Osborne was going to be a ‘responsible’ Shadow Chancellor, then ‘What you can’t do is sign up to a program which John Redwood has come up with today, which talks about over £21bn worth of cuts without actually saying how you’re going to pay for that’.

As the Chancellor well knows, neither George Osborne nor David Cameron have endorsed the proposals found in the Redwood report (I wish the party had, but the fact remains that they have not).

The Chancellor then went on to add, ‘Because, the only way you can pay for that sort of money coming out the system is by quite savage reductions on things like transport’. Again, as Alistair Darling knows, this is not the case – but to admit so would not suit his and the Labour party’s argument.

During the 1990’s, Labour and the progressives in the media effectively developed the idea within public consciousness that if you exponentially increase spending on public services, you will exponentially reap positive returns. Conversely, based upon this assumption, if you decrease Government spending, public services will suffer because, as this theory also (falsely) suggests, all money spent on public services is spent efficiently and without waste. Therefore, on the basis of these ideas, the logical conclusion appears to be that more public spending is better, and cuts, by whatever means, will lead to decline.

The Left managed to disseminate this idea widely during the late eighties and early nineties due in part to the Conservative party being in a state of political meltdown (from which it has not yet fully recovered) and unable to easily defend or put across their ideas under an almost constant barrage of negative press coverage.

Labour and the Left very much knew that to attack an individual or group is to directly undermine their ideas or indirectly challenge any belief with which that person or party associates itself. This was very pertinently illustrated last week during the BBC’s initial coverage of John Redwood’s Economic Competitiveness, in which embarrassing archive footage of him was broadcast from his time as Welsh secretary, mumbling along to the Welsh anthem. In mocking Mr Redwood, the BBC hoped that some viewers would draw the conclusion that a seemingly foolish man would have equally foolish ideas.

As we know, despite ten years of waste under Labour rule, the NHS, at which billions were throw vaguely in its unreformed and bureaucratic direction, has not noticeably improved. Neither has the postal service or local council rubbish collection, to name but another two. British infrastructure is crumbling and business is become gradually more and more uncompetitive to the extent that firms are moving abroad to find cheaper labour – with cuts in jobs being the main result of high tax and spend policies.

People in Britain are currently crying out for a viable alternative party of Government. This was perfectly demonstrated only recently in the dying days of the Blair era, where once he was finally expelled from office, the public heaved a collective sigh of relief and embraced their new Prime Minister simply because he was not Mr Blair. However, when the public eventually realises (as they will) that while Gordon Brown is not Tony Blair, he is very similar; then that cry for an alternative will renew with increasing vigour.

Yet despite all Labour’s failings that we can point to, for quite sometime there has been no concerted public fight back against their wayward thinking – admittedly a problem when much of it is portrayed as fact by their media mouthpiece the BBC.

Part of the problem lies in the very fact that vast swathes of the Conservative party have not been interested in combating these ideas. There has been no desire to confront the progressive agenda pursued by Labour, and instead just meek capitulation to the seemingly inevitable has taken hold. Instead, the Conservative party has contented itself with trying to fight New Labour (when it has not been fighting itself) on their terms rather than ours. This will be, in my opinion, always destined for failure.

By allowing the Left and Labour to define the centre ground on where they are – which is, of course, on the Left – they will always attack any proposals the Conservative party puts forward as a ‘lurch to the Right’.

If we look to the past, major long-term incoming Governments; most recently and notably those of Thatcher and Blair, made active attempts and were successful in putting forward their ideas in the public arena. The next Conservative Government will be a mere flash in the pan if the populace are not persuaded of the merit of our ideas. In 2007, Britain has not yet undergone that crucial counter-revolution in thinking necessary for a change of government. Perhaps this is because those in charge do not wish to see any radical change in direction. We shall see.

While George Osborne and David Cameron have dug themselves into a hole on the issue of tax; one from which they have no immediate return - organisations such as the Taxpayer’s Alliance have attempted to take up the torch in their stead.

Sometimes, the Conservative party is not always the best vehicle to put forward ideas. It would appear that on the issue of taxation, the party has all but defaulted. Now, it is up to private and independent organisations such as the TPA help make the case for lower taxes, so in periods of electoral decline for the Conservative party (or any other potential conservative, lower tax parties that may exist in the future,) it is less likely that those monetary beliefs will be tarnished and become seemingly electorally untenable in the eyes of the public.

While currently it seems that the odds of outright victory at the next General Election are heavily stacked against the Conservatives; with the steady growth of tax-focused organisations, I am optimistic for the future.

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